This invention relates to a unique threshold poison bait station for insects entering and/or leaving buildings.
The problem of insect control is a universal one. Huge businesses have been created around the preparation and sale of insecticides, repellents and poison baits. For numerous reasons, the direct application of poison in and around household and businesses is not preferable. Children, pets, and visitors may be exposed to toxic poisons through utilization of the direct application of sprays and baits. For these and other reasons, development of so called "insect traps" resulted. Alvarez, U.S. Pat. No. 3,704,539, developed a bait station for small bugs that utilizes a "unitary poison tablet, gel or the like" which is wrapped around a center post. The bait thereby, presumably, is exposed to bugs, but is more or less out of reach of children and pets. The Alvarez device is a small portable device that may be moved around to various locations throughout the house. The Woodruff et al. device, U.S. Pat. No. 4,563,836, is a circularly shaped container with bait in the middle. A see-through cover enables the user to determine whether bait replenishment is necessary. Access to the interior of the circular device is provided in a number of locations and there are a series of short broken walls that prevent direct access to the center of the circular device. This invention is also portable.
The primary focus of these prior art devices is to attract and poison insects that have already entered a house or business. Further, the devices are incapable of being placed in an area over which people will walk. Still further, these devices are ineffective in intercepting insects either entering or exiting a home through window or door thresholds. The primary reason for this is that the threshold is a precisely positioned device designed to mesh closely with windows and doors and to form a good seal against the undesired introduction of weather, insects, etc., into a building.
Thus, there is a need in the art for providing a poison bait station that may be utilized in areas receiving heavy foot traffic. There is further a need for a poison bait station that may be utilized in the intricate interface between doors and windows and the corresponding thresholds. Further, there is a need for a threshold poison bait device that will attract and poison insects both entering and exiting a building. It, therefore, is an object of this invention to provide a novel threshold poison bait station for intercepting insects entering and leaving a building.